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Beware number of servings in midafternoon caffeine hit Saturday, Oct 29, 2005 By Micki Bare There was a Mocha Frappuccino calling out to me from the refrigerated case in the back of the convenience store where I stopped to buy $60 worth of gas - I didn't have enough money to actually fill my tank. After putting some gas in the tank, I realized that I was not just thirsty. I needed something that would kick start my second wind. I grabbed the bottle from its space in the soft drink lineup and turned it over to read the nutritional information. Two hundred calories seemed like a lot for a midafternoon beverage. As I contemplated forgoing cheese on my broccoli later that evening, a bottle of Mountain Dew caught my eye. For comparative purposes, I decided to review the nutritional information on the back of the green plastic bottle. My eyes zeroed in on 150. Only 150 calories were in the Mountain Dew. I nearly broke the bottle of Mocha Frappuccino trying to squeeze it back into the lineup in the fridge. I skipped over to the register and paid for my tank of gas - enough to get me around town for a couple of days, anyway - and my bottle of Dew. I hadn't had a sugary soda lately, so I was really excited about my impending afternoon caffeine hit. Pulling out of the gas station, I twisted off the cap and enjoyed a big, cool, refreshing sip. I arrived at the office, Dew in hand, and bounced back to my desk where I gulped another swig of my Dew. I answered 12 e-mails, returned six calls, filed 2 pounds of paperwork and rearranged the furniture in my office. Seeing it was a few minutes past closing time, I grabbed what was left of my Dew, my briefcase and keys, and then hopped out the door. As I was stopped at a traffic light, I decided to glance at the nutritional information of my soda once more after swallowing the very last drop. I still couldn't believe that it contained only 150 calories. That's when I noticed the "servings per container" in fine print above the grid of nutritional information. Two-and-a-half servings? Who puts two-and-a-half servings in a bottle of soda? I quickly did the math - not a difficult task while hopped up on caffeine. A total of 375 calories? How could this be? I actually passed up a perfectly good, highly caffeinated beverage with only 200 calories for a 375-calorie soda. I spent the rest of the drive home trying to figure out how to work off the extra calories. Not only was I going to have to forgo the cheese on my broccoli, but bread was now simply out of the question. I was also going to have to walk after dinner, vacuum and dust. And I'd probably still barely break even. After working through my calorie-surplus crisis, my mind started racing. I became more and more frustrated with the beverage and food-packaging industry. Who purchases a 20-ounce bottle of pop with the expectation that they will be sharing it with one-and-a-half other people? I've never seen carbonated soft drinks marketed as if the plastic bottle was intended to be portioned out. The athletes and supermodels polish off the whole bottle at one sitting, sometimes in one big gulp. I wondered if they realized how many servings they were consuming during the 40 takes required to shoot the commercial. Maybe we're supposed to save the rest for the next day and half. That would be fine if the carbonation lasted that long. But everyone knows that once the seal is broken, the drink is doomed to go flat within hours, even if you screw the top back on really tight. Life would be so much easier, and America might even be so much thinner, if beverages and foods were packaged in single-serving containers. It would be much more convenient to grab a drink or pack of crackers and know that the calories, fat content, iron, calcium, and other nutritional details are accurate for the entire contents. We shouldn't have to break out a calculator and multiply by odd servings to track what we consume. And think of how easy it would be to follow the food pyramid guidelines if beverages and foods were packaged and marketed in single-serving containers. Then all I'd have to do is figure out exactly where Mountain Dew and Mocha Frappuccino fall on the pyramid. ------- Micki Bare is a columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau and the Courier-Tribune in Asheboro, N.C., and author of the book, "Relative Expressions." She lives in Asheboro with her husband and three children. Her e-mail address is mickibare@earthlink.net. |
